Yes, when SH toll road 130 frontage was being bought, people with buildings or land along the existing roadways received as much as $1.5 million for 5 acres. That doesn’t hold true for people on the southern leg of SH 130 from 71 to I-10 in the rural areas. My Wife's Uncle is one of those directly effected. In the state’s deal with Cintra-Zachry to build this road, the state buys the ROW then, leases it to the Spanish builder to operate for 50 yrs. They in turn have the rights to all concessions along the highway not, the previous owners. They also have a non-compete clause saying any roads that might compete with or take money away from the toll road, can not upgrade.
Honestly, I’m not trying to make you believe anything because you’re not alone in that frame of mind. Just want to relay some facts you might not have heard.
I appreciate your efforts. I had heard all of that, but I’m also aware that everyone is treating every proposed idea as a done deal, when it’s not. They are proposals.
It’s extremely unlikely, in my opinion, that everything that has been floated will be incorporated into the final contract, and we don’t even know who the operator of the tollway will be at this point. I’ll admit, there’s a very good chance it will be Cintra-Zachry, but we might be surprised.
A new high-volume expressway through Texas would help alleviate a lot of congestion that we have. That’s exactly why we build new roads, and why we will never be through building new roads. Of course, there are winners and losers with any major project that involves taking land for public projects. Generally, the winners are those with advance knowledge of where the project will be sited.
It’s soft corruption, but we all know it happens.
What I don’t like is the approach that many opposed to the highway take. Yes, eminent domain is involved, but without it, this nation would have very few roads at all. We’d certainly have no electrical grid or pipelines for oil and gas, and even water. We wouldn’t like living in that world.
We can argue about how this road should be built, where, and even by whom. What we shouldn’t argue about is whether it should be built. Taking the position that no more roads should be built in Texas is insanity.